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Editor's Corner

This week's newsletter gets back to our roots by opening a window on some of what's been happening lately with the Windows platform and what may be coming around the corner in the near future. We also have some responses to last week's Ask Our Readers question plus our usual assortment of tips, tools, links and fun stuff. Enjoy!

Speaking of opening windows, have you ever wondered why the windows don't open in most office buildings where IT pros work? Here's the response that Dilbert got from the Pointy-haired Boss on this issue:

Last week a reader named David reached out to us with the following problem:

I have recently built some new desktops for our nonprofit, and after installing Windows 10 Professional on the local machines, joined the machines to the Server 2008 R2 domain (as domain administrator) and logged into the domain. As a domain admin, I have no control over any of the network printers on the new machines! If the printer was not installed by the local administrator, then is does not appear on the new desktop, and cannot be added by anyone in the domain. I am not running a print server on the domain, as Windows 7 machines did not require it, and I can still control the printers on the Windows 7 machines without any problems. Other Windows 10 Professional machines installed earlier are working just fine with the existing network printers.

So far, I have tried changing the User Access policy, adding the domain admins to the security tab on each printer as a local admin, added a print server to the domain controller (Yikes! What a nightmare!), and tried adding printers as the domain admin (won't work. HP printers want me to use an app. Its a desktop people. Why an app?). I changed the Group Policy on the server (Nope!). Help, please?

Here are some responses we received from readers concerning David's issue:

The user's domain controller may still be using SMBv1 access. That protocol is being deprecated for security reasons. With newer versions of Windows 10, SMBv1 (aka SMB1) is not allowed per security updates. SMBv2 works but must be configured on systems that allow SMBv1 as a default option. See this blog from Microsoft

By default, Win 10 user on a domain does not have local admin rights. What I have done is this: Setup the pc as normal for the end user, reboot. Login with Domain Admin account on the pc. Open Computer Management. Select local users and groups then Groups then Administrators. Domain user should be added to the Administrators group.

--from Chris, a Microsoft Certified Professional in Michigan, USA.

If any other readers have suggestions for David you can send them to us at [email protected]

Ask Our Readers

WServerNews now has over 400,000 subscribers worldwide! That's a lot of expertise to tap into. Do you need help with some issue or need advice on something IT-related? Got a question you'd like us to toss out to our readers to try and answer? Email us at [email protected]

Windows cleaners and optimizers beware!

Users who use (and those who make) cleaners, optimizers, and similar applications that pressure users into making purchase decisions will soon find an ally in (or be annoyed with) the upcoming release of Windows Defender which apparently is going to automatically detect and remove programs that display coercive messages as unwanted software from users' Windows computers. CSO Online has the details here:

Windows Defender better for all

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) which until now is only available in Windows 10 will apparent soon be available for computers running Windows 8.1 and even Windows 7. Redmond Magazine has the details of this excellent move from Microsoft:

Microsoft has also extended Windows Defender capabilities in Windows 10 version 1709 (Fall Creators Edition) with new anti-ransomware, attack surface reduction, network protection, controlled folder access, and other capabilities. Susan Bradley has described these improvements in detail in this CSO article:

Enterprise and Education Edition users get a break

From Microsoft's Windows for IT Pros blog comes this announcement from Bernardo Caldas, General Manager for Windows, and Jared Spataro, General Manager for Office:

"Many customers have made significant progress in moving to Windows as a service... However, some customers have requested an extension to the standard 18 months of support for Windows 10 releases. To help these customers, we are announcing an additional six months of servicing for the Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10, versions 1607, 1703, and 1709."

No more Microsoft Office love coming for Windows 7 or 8.1

Long-time users of Microsoft Office who are resisting upgrading their computers to Windows 10's new software-as-a-service model may be disappointed to hear that the next standalone version of Microsoft Office (Office 2019) will only work on Windows 10 and you won't be supported on Windows 8.1 or Windows 7. The Verge has an article about this:

This may seem like a big issue to some tech pundits but my own take is that most businesses resisting Windows 10 are probably more than content to continue using Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007 or even Office XP for the foreseeable future!

Then of course there's always LibreOffice, the free office productivity software suite that recently released an enhanced new version as NeoWin explains:

We're actually planning on testing LibreOffice 6.0 in-house in the near future because of some clients we work with who use it. Are any readers of our newsletter currently using LibreOffice for their own businesses or organizations? What are your thoughts and impressions about its capabilities and/or limitations? Email us at [email protected]

On the brink of cloud-based OS deployment

Windows deployment expert Johan Arwidmark has a new post on his blog Deployment Research that demonstrates how you can run MDT Task sequences for the Computer Refresh or In-Place Upgrade scenarios from Microsoft Intune:

Send us your feedback

Got feedback about anything in this issue of WServerNews? Email us at [email protected]

Recommended for Learning

Free Microsoft Press E-book: Introduction to Windows

Containers are a stepping stone that can help IT organizations understand what key items in modern IT environments, such as DevOps, Agile, Scrum, Infrastructure as Code, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Deployment, to name just a few, can do and how these organizations can adopt all of these elements and more to their enterprises.

Microsoft Virtual Academy

Introduction to Microsoft PowerShell with SharePoint Server

If you're not a developer or programmer by trade, but you want to automate a certain redundant procedure within SharePoint Server 2016, Microsoft PowerShell is your answer! Get the details in this practical introductory course, which starts with the basics and wraps up with a helpful demonstration of the concepts and technology. Learn what PowerShell is and why to use it, along with the basic construct of PowerShell cmdlets. See how to make cmdlets, hear the minimum permissions required to run them in SharePoint, and take a look at the different ways to get help on cmdlets and how to use them in your day-to-day tasks. Determine which cmdlets are available, and find out about parameter sets. Don't miss this opportunity to learn about PowerShell and how it can interact with SharePoint Server 2016 to manipulate web apps, site collections, and more.

From Mark: The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (the original one from 1974, not the more recent remake).

From Bruce works for the IT Services of a USA state government:

North by Northwest

Runway Train

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Polar Express

Emperor of the North Pole

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

From Don: Broken Arrow with John Travolta, Christian Slater, Howie Long. It's got it all: fight scenes on top of, inside of, and under a runaway train with a nuclear bomb about to go off. I mean it's got Howie Long how good is that….

From Peter who is an IT manager for a beverage company: Snowpiercer is a modern movie that I liked. Not too many made anymore. Movies with great scenes that involved trains… Bridge Over the River Kwai, the first Mission Impossible & Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

From Richard: Not a movie/video, but Black and White photographs of the Western Maryland Railway:

Fact: I've been keeping one eye half-open recently on what's been happening in Germany where negotiations have been underway for some time to try and form a governing coalition. However not being particularly familiar with politics in Germany, I was somewhat confused when I read this paragraph on Spiegel Online:

In the end, the most important politicians from Merkel's CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), met in a 24-hour marathon session at CDU headquarters to negotiate a new German government coalition.

This made me wonder if the Christian Social Union (CSU) is Merkel's Bavarian sister party or if the CDU is the sister party. Or is the CDU Merkel's party? It's the sort of thing I can never keep straight in my head. But the problem isn't the multitude of political parties in Germany or the acronyms they use for themselves; the problem is how to interpret commas in sentences.

The classic example of ambiguous comma use is of course this joke:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

"Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"Well, I'm a panda," he says. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

PowerShell - Copy files over WinRM

Intune - Configure folder redirection OneDrive for Business

Jos Lieben has a post on the Microsoft Tech Community site where he shares a script that can be deployed through Intune to Windows 10 MDM clients in order to silently configure folder redirection and OneDrive for Business:

A growing demand for public IaaS has brought many players into the market, but not every platform will fit your needs. Analyze what your computer needs, and compare the leading vendors to make the best choice.

WServerNews - Product of the Week

Free Tool for Monitoring Exchange Server Status & Performance

SolarWinds® Exchange Monitor is a free tool that allows users to monitor Microsoft® Exchange™ Server 2013 and 2016. Get basic information about the server’s metrics, services, and database availability group (DAG) status. Add as many Exchange Servers as you wish. Simply click the “Add Server” button and fill IP address/domain name and credentials.

WServerNews - Editors

Mitch Tulloch is Senior Editor of WServerNews and is a widely recognized expert on Windows administration, deployment and virtualization. Mitch was lead author of the bestselling Windows 7Resource Kit and has been author or series editor for almost fifty books mostly published by Microsoft Press. Mitch is also a ten-time recipient of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for his outstanding contributions in support of the global IT pro community. Mitch owns and runs an information technology content development business based in Winnipeg, Canada. For more information see www.mtit.com.

Ingrid Tulloch is Associate Editor of WServerNews and was co-author of the Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking from Microsoft Press. Ingrid is also manages research and marketing for our content development business and has co-developed university-level courses in Information Security Management for a Masters of Business Administration program.